United Nations agencies tracking access to water and sanitation targets against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) warned today that the lack of progress on sanitation threatens to undermine the child survival and health benefits from gains in access to safe drinking water.

The United Nations and the international community are experiencing an age of great difficulties and opportunities which will help define the future of the planet, Ban Ki-moon declared in a wide-ranging address that touched upon the myriad common challenges – from climate change to sustainable development – currently facing humanity.

The President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today opened the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, declaring that 2015 must be the year when the world’s people and leaders realize the dream of a new sustainability agenda.

On June 26th, 1945, the United Nations was born from the ashes and rubble of the Second World War as delegates from fifty nations came together to sign the UN Charter – the Organization's founding document and the bedrock of global peace and development.

The business community and the private sector can make a difference as United Nations Member States are in the process of formulating a new sustainability agenda, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said at the General Assembly, which was meeting to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the UN Global Compact.

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) declined in 2014 but flows to developing countries actually reached their highest level ever, says a new United Nations report released today that also calls for systematic reform of the current international investment agreement regime.